The Quest For The Truck

5 07 2009

Saturday, June 13th, 2009 ~

There are rumours of an old truck, sitting in about 94′, in the St. Lawrence. Oren, Steve, and I were on a mission to find it! We know of a couple of people that dive it once in a while, and have given us a rough estimation of how to find it.

We took our gear down to the water, and prepped for the adventure.

Oren, after taking his scooter down to the water…

We dropped down, gathered up, and off we went. We dropped into the channel, and began to drift with the current, at 94′. We encountered many cool looking bottles, and even made it to a small island, but no truck. As we drifted, we did happen upon interesting dune-like formations of periwinkle shells, that we had never seen before. The periwinkle shells do cover alot of the channel, but we had not seen them in a desert formation like they were. It was very cool to see.

We also saw various bits of metal, strewn about, but nothing that indicated a truck should be there. We decided it was time to turn, and headed back against the current.

Even though we didn’t find the truck, it was still alot of fun looking for it.

Bottom Time ~ 89 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 106′
Water Temp. ~ 57
Visibility ~ 50′

Our day of diving was not yet finished!

Jay and Jen arrived, we had a bit of lunch, and planned another run upstream. This dive would be a bit shorter, and we would travel upstream, drifting back down onto the Gaskin, then back in.

Our collection of gear at the entry point…

We had an enjoyable and relaxing dive in the channel, finding an old boat motor, more metal bits, and many upside down bottles (this means they’ve been picked up before). We arrived back to the Gaskin, played around the wreck for a while, then headed back in.

Bottom Time ~ 77 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 105′
Water Temp. ~ 57
Visibility ~ 50′

Jen, Jay, Oren, Steve…

Jay, Jen, Oren, me…

We had some company when we surfaced as well. A couple of Airedales…

We had some other visitors as well. Or, perhaps we were visitors on their turf…

We can now refer to Steve as the Goose Whisperer… *ducks*

We packed up and met up with Eric, who had picked up his new suit.

Eric, striking a pose…

The side of our Dive Gear Transportation Unit (DGTU)…

We then sat around with Gill and Vian, having water and the most decadent pie I’ve ever tasted in my life. Thanks Oren!!! I’m not sure if I should really thank him or curse him for bringing such wonderful food, that makes my butt grow, just thinking about it. The thought of Almond Apple Cheesecake didn’t really appeal to me at first… Then I tasted it.. Holy smokes… As much as I love their Mumble Crumble pie.. this one takes the “cake.”

Ok.. off to sleep.

Sunday, June 14th, 2009 ~

We headed back down to Centeen Park, where we planned on going to the Gaskin, then veering off, to see what we could find. We noticed that there was a boat moored up to it before entering. When we got there, we really couldn’t see much other than silt, so we decided to keep going. No Gaskin today…

We scootered past it, and into the channel, where we reveled in the sites of more bottles, periwinkle shells, and generally just enjoying the water.

It was a similar dive to those we have done before, but we never seem to tire of it, as we always do see different things.

Bottom Time ~ 77 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 106′
Water Temp. ~ 57
Visibility ~ Depends on where you were – 5′ – 50′

Jay, giving his approval of our new DGTU…

Steve…

Myself and Jen…

The two fancy DGTUs…





First Jodrey Dive Of The Year

4 07 2009

Saturday, June 6th, 2009 ~

We had arranged for a handful of us to take a boat out to the Jodrey, seeing as the water temperatures were warming up nicely. It turned out that no one else was able to make it, so Steve and I had Jeff’s small boat all to ourselves.

We made our way over to customs, waited to be tended to, then went over to the “tie up tree.” We put our deco bottles and scooters in the water, and geared up.

We splashed in, drifted to the “cliff,” and dropped down to the wreck. We didn’t see much until we got right down to the wreck, which was not a good sign. We made a couple of turns around the bow, swam through the crane a few times, then swung around the bow again. The current was absolutely ripping around a part of the bow, and felt like it was going to flip me over at one point. Next time I’ll stay closer to the wreck, around that part, like Steve did…lol…

We came up the crack in the wall, did our deco, scootered back over to the boat, and ascended. Although the visibility was absolutely horrible, Steve was able to get some decent footage. The camera saw more than we did!

Bottom Time ~ 77 mins.
Avg. Depth ~ 165′
Water Temp. ~ 55
Visibility ~ 5′
Current ~ Freakin’ ripping

Steve, after the dive…

Me, after the dive…

After getting back to the dock, clearing customs, and unloading the boat, we headed up to the ice cream shop for a treat. When we were pulling out, we saw a collection of older cars in the Thousand Island Cruises parking lot. Some cool stuff!

I guess they had a little more horse power than ours…

So… it was a gorgeous day on the river, we had the Jodrey to ourselves, had ice cream, and saw some old cars. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday at all!